A weekly round-up currated by Women’s Center staff member, Michael Jalloh Jamboria

This week, my good friend came into the Women’s Center to chat. She mentioned how I ‘slayed on the daily’, her words, not mine. In the spirit of my friend, every week I will be bringing you some interesting, funny or thought-provoking content from the internet! Be sure to join us next week for more and continue to slay! This week’s articles:

Protestors of the North Dakota Pipeline Project finally have some good news as the Departments of Justice, Interior and the Army issued a temporary halt in the continuation of the project!

Saturday Night Live finally has a Latina cast member. Hmm…it only took 41 years of being on the air. Welcome Melissa Villasenor to the cast! Also, check out the Women’s Center Blog post on some other seriously funny women.

While Donald Trump was getting ready for his appearances in Baltimore to address the National Guard, People’s Power Assembly was gearing up to protest the convention.

The women on the white house staff have been using the strategy of “amplifying” to combat mansplaining on the job. Check them out!!

Finally, the Women’s Center turned 25 this week! Check out Women’s Center 25th Anniversary Playlist!

Women Center Staff members in the Birthday Party photo booth

Name: Joanna Lum

Internship, Co-op or Research Site: University of Maryland, School of Pharmacy. Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Position Title: Research Assistant

Major(s)/Minor(s): Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Expected Graduation Year: May 2019

Briefly describe your internship, co-op,  or research opportunity, including your day-to-day tasks, responsibilities, and assignments.

I was a summer research assistant at Dr. Peter Swaan's nano-medicine and drug delivery lab. In his lab, we aim to enhance the targeting ability of cancer drugs by using cell-penetrable lysine dendrimers. They are nano-sized synthetic polymers that act like tiny cars, carrying the drug and sending it to the nuclei of cells.

My project focused on the cellular internalization of drug-dendrimer conjugates in human breast cancer cells. I performed cytotoxicity assays and compared the toxicities between the drug itself and the drug-dendrimer conjugates. Then, I visualized how they entered the cells through confocal laser microscopy.

My day-to-day responsibilities included making sure the cells were growing healthily by observing them under a microscope and changing their growth medium. When they were 90-100% confluent (meaning the cells have divided extensively and were packed among one another tightly), I had to perform cell passaging or splitting. I also used the micro-pipettes almost everyday to make buffer solutions and treat the cells with the nano-medicine. 

Describe the process of obtaining your internship, research, or co-op opportunity.

I was nominated by Dean LaCourse for this summer research experience. After submitting my cover letter and resume, I had an interview with Dr. Baron, Assistant Vice Provost for Academic Advising and Student Success. Then I sat down with Dr. Swaan to learn more about his current projects before he paired me up with one of his graduate students.

I especially would like to thank the STEM BUILD program for offering extensive advising, interview prep, and resume critiques throughout the school year.

What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization/company?

On top of the great exposure to pharmaceutical science and excellent networking opportunity, I loved being able to focus on one research project for eight weeks. This full-time commitment gave me the time to bridge the gap between science in the classroom and present-day research. It has helped me to visualize the positive impacts biomedical research can bring to our community.

Also, being in a lab surrounded by dedicated graduate students has pushed me to think critically and work diligently. They have taught me to go beyond the surface and dig deep into unanswered questions with a curious mind.

The process of growing cells under sterilized and controlled conditions was very fascinating too!

How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?

One of the major setbacks of chemotherapeutic drugs is their low specificity. In order words, when the drug enters the body, it kills both healthy and cancerous cells. By studying targeted drug delivery, we hope to improve drug efficacy and minimize undesired side effects. After eight weeks of experiments, the drug-dendrimer conjugates were displayed through confocal microscopy to be endocytosed into small and punctate vesicles. The images suggested that the vesicles were trafficking towards the nuclei where they could eventually inhibit DNA replication of tumor cells. As a result, cell-penetrable lysine dendrimers can be used as a prospective vehicle for sustained drug release targeted to cancer cells. 

What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience?

Work hard in your classes during the school year and build a strong relationship with the faculty. Show them that you are serious and passionate about doing research!

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Want to be the next Intern of the Week? Make sure to fill out this form and stay tuned. New interns are announced every Friday!

1 John 4:18 - “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

When I was growing up in church, I often heard that the opposite of fear is faith – just have more faith, and then you will not be afraid. I would try and try to muster up more faith, and every time I failed. I just got more down on myself. But I have discovered over time that the antidote to all our fears is love.

When God looked upon the human race as we were lost in our sin, we were so precious to him that he had to do something. This agapé love drove him to action. He sacrificed his beloved Son on our behalf. He did this for the sake of you and me, the people he so deeply cherished.

Agapé love is so simple, but it still takes a lifetime to let seep into the depths of our souls. It comes as we worship God in his holiness, as we proclaim his goodness and majesty…If agapé love is the basis of our lives, we will totally change as the difference in us is worked out in our day-to-day interactions with the ones we are called to do life with. We experience it in worship and it changes everything – even to the point of casting out fear. Fear is replaced by a boldness in sharing the miracle of God’s love for us to the entire world.

This is not our natural inclination. That’s why in 1 Corinthians 14:1, Paul urges us to, “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit.” The word for “follow” here means to hotly, passionately pursue something. It is an act of diligence. As we honor others, it becomes our chief pursuit and aim to express what God had done inside of us! Start there. Have you fully experienced and embraced God’s love for you? Has it sunk deep down in your spirit? When it does – watch out! You will love others as never before! But it begins with receiving God’s love in your own life first.
(Taken with edits from Darlene Zschech’s Worship Changes Everything.)

Let us worship Jesus today. Let our fears of punishments be driven out by his perfect love for us because of his sacrifice for us on the rugged cross. Let this love become the basis of our lives more and more as the Holy Spirit changes everything.

-AP

Anne Lepore was a longtime director of creative and special sections at the Baltimore Sun and is a former Retriever staff member.

It’s difficult to describe what it was like going to college in the 1980s to anyone who wasn’t there. We were buoyant, so expectant, so optimistic. We wore bowler hats and pegged trousers with no sense of irony whatsoever. We danced at Marshall’s, Schaefer’s and The Depot to hook-heavy music and saw movies like, “My Life as a Dog” at The Charles.

Most of this was semi-relevant to my position as features editor at The Retriever in 1986-1987. It was an official internship that provided me with course credits as well as $40 a week, which I desperately needed to supplement the grubby cash I earned working up to 30 hours a week as a cocktail waitress, as we were called then.

It’s been nearly 30 years and my memories are more like glimpses. There was one computer that we all shared, it had its own room. Tasks were largely manual; “hard copy” was a real thing.

I remember reviewing “Especially for You” by The Smithereens (liked it) and “Louder Than Bombs” by The Smiths, 1987 (loved it). I really enjoyed an untraditional campus performance of “The Importance of Being Oscar.” An acerbic review of a Neil Simon play got me uninvited to a friend’s soccer match for fear I would judge him as harshly.

In retrospect, I realize that I didn’t have sufficient mind-share for the job I held. I was fiercely concentrated on my studies, my living expenses and my boyfriend, in roughly that order. My inattention to The Retriever even got me suspended for a week, deservedly.

During my senior year, 1986-1987, I even blew what could have been a really impactful story. A friend got a job at the local Holiday Spa and told me that their membership practices were racially discriminatory and she had proof – the pre-printed enrollment forms had a code employees could circle to indicate that an applicant was African-American. Those applicants were then either charged higher rates or rejected for membership altogether.

But I wasn’t hard-nosed enough to take on the challenge of investigating. In 1988, a class action lawsuit was filed against Holiday Spas contending that the chain discouraged African-Americans from buying memberships at a majority of its clubs. Who knows whether or not I could have broken the story and if it would have had any impact if I had.

It took me a few more years to realize for certain I wasn’t cut out to be a reporter. In my first job out of college, I spent a year at The Daily Record as a copy editor and then reporter, surrounded by true professionals who lived for the scoop and relished tackling controversial topics. On my last assignment, I interviewed a man whose business had just gone bankrupt; I knew I would never be a journalist.

After I switched to marketing, I spent 23 years at The Baltimore Sun. I finally found a way to be a part of the news business I loved.

The post Trends and tribulations by Anne Lepore appeared first on The Retriever.

Friday, September 30, 2016
(Setup on Thursday, September 29)

Baltimore Convention Center
One West Pratt Street – West Wing
Baltimore, MD 21201

Join your friends, coworkers and neighbors to help hundreds of homeless individuals, children and families access the services they need. As a volunteer guide, you’ll be paired with a homeless participant and accompany them throughout the event.

This year’s event will also feature our first Mission of Mercy dental clinic serving an estimated 1,000 patients. Additional volunteers are needed for the dental clinic on Thursday, September 29.

We’re looking forward to having you volunteer again. Thank you!

REGISTER NOW

Questions? Contact us at phc@uwcm.org.